What happenend to Panther G 111

[Ome_Joop]

I only know it was shot of a bridge and landed in the river upside down, crew dead?
What aircraft did this? How did they get it out of the river?
What happened to the crew?


http://tanxheaven.com/panther/pantherg.htm
http://www.jagdtiger.de/index2.htm?http ... PzV-02.htm

From Achtung Panzer:

The particular Panther Ausf G is on display at the Belgian town of Houffalize. In 1948, it was recovered from the river Ourthe, where it layed upside down since the Battle of the Bulge. Originally, the tank was from the 11th Panzer Division with turret number 111, but it has been changed to 401

http://members.tripod.com/George_Parada/ptgal3.htm

[Ome_Joop]

I found a pic of it!



Did they really kept this lying therefor a couple of years(with a few of the crew still in it)??

http://www.twenot.nl/panther.htm

[Christian W.]

I doubt so. Either the crew survived and bailed out of the tank or the bodies were recovered from the wreck before it was left on the river.

[Sander D]

Hello Joop

The book Preseved german tanks 2 by Trevor larkum,state also that the panther was recoverd with the dead crew still inside,only they say that it was recoverd in 1952.

Some other pictures of the panther

The fist one came from:
http://ardenne44.free.fr/page3.html

It's a early picture because there is is no wooden brigde.



This picture was sold on e-bay,i believe they sayd that the picture was taken in the laté '50 early '60.
On this foto you can see the 111,i made the comparing picture in '91.

[Christian W.]

God, dont those people have hearts? Leaving dead people inside a tank for many years? They too had family.

[Juha Hujanen]

Most likely that Panther was from 116.Pz.Division.

/Juha

[jagdtiger128]

I only know it was shot of a bridge and landed in the river upside down, crew dead?
What aircraft did this? How did they get it out of the river?
What happened to the crew?

This Panther originally came from Pz.Regt I./24 and was with Pz.Regt I./16 when it was lost. From what I understand, the remains of the crew killed in the attack were discovered when the Panther was pulled from the river. I doubt they were intentionally left there.

Here's a great "new" shot which recently surfaced from a Belgian web site:



Picture from: http://www.cegesoma.be/

There was a great thread in the Axis d.g. at M.L. on this and other I./24 Panthers about a week ago. I don't have the link but it's probably 3 or 4 pages deep by now.

HTH-
Rob

[gewehrdork]

God, dont those people have hearts? Leaving dead people inside a tank for many years? They too had family. 8O

I dare say in such a wrecked countryside that was the last thing on their agenda and rightly so. The dead of a hated enemy were not readily sweated over - especially if they were entombed in an upturned AFV that weighed enough to preclude a reasonable salvage operation had the equipment been available to them then.
Not heartless but practical really as rebuilding took precedence over interring eney dead and war material.

[Christian W.]

Yes, but seven years? Like they couldnt have pulled the wreck out of the river earlier. If i would have been there, hell yeah i would have done something. Maybe dived on the river and enter the wreck to get those poor folks out of there. They werent more bad than the people who wrecked their tank.

[Christian Ankerstjerne]

The point is that they may not have been able to reach the crews, even if they had known they were there. You don't just pull it out of the river with a couple of ropes and a tow truck...

Christian

[Christian W.]

Of course not, they would use horses to pull it out . Lol, of course not. That thing weighted about 45500kg`s. But would they really have needed to get the wreck out of the river? Judging from what i can see from the picture, it wouldnt have been possible to simply send someone to dive on the river, enter the wreck trough hatch and get the crew out of there.

[Christian Ankerstjerne]

They wouldn't know if the hatch was open, though. Don't you think that if it had been easily accessible, some children would have crawled into the tank, courious as they are?

Christian

[LegalAssassin]

In a country filled with knocked out tanks, I don't think a heavy tank, upside down in a river would be priority.

And if it was knocked around by a plane, how would they know people were still in it? The only ones who could know such a thing would be german soldiers, and judging by the slaughter from the Bulge and to the end, I can see if noone alive knew for sure the crew was still in there. More likely, people who guessed would have assumed it was empty as nobody said anything else.

I'd like to know why they changed the painting, to me that ruins it. It was once 111, why change it's camo and number?

[Ome_Joop]

When i first heard the story of 111 i tought it was a high bridge and deep water, but it was just a small little bridge and just a little stream...

I think they should have pulled it out of the water!
Priority i would say: Those bodies inside it would smell when they decompose and rot and i'm not even talking about deseases!?
I hope they gave those guys a normal burial after they got them out!

[Christian W.]

No matter on whos side they were, they deserved to be buried properly. I hope that their families were told.